Lost In Libya

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Really wish I could elaborate on the story which I desperately want to write here. Unfortunately, discretion is going to prevent me from doing this. But let's just say I found the perfect picture to sum up the story and therefore I had to at least put that up!

My complete inability to be anonymous means that even people I do not know, know that I am the phantom blogger.

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However, after serious consideration and numerous discussions and re-reading of my blog I have realised that there is nothing really offensive or risky discussed in my blog and it would be a shame for me to stop documenting my journey so, on that note.. . . . .

Friday, July 31, 2009

Today's intention was to venture into the centre of Tripoli to purchase some new DVD's from the 1 and 1/2 dinar (75p) DVD store, where you can get good copies of good movies.

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However, due to the mice escapade, I ventured back into the horrific "pet abbatoir" I mentioned in my previous post "Of All the Pet Shops In The World" (dated Friday, April 3, 2009), in an attempt to buy some form of normal mouse traps for the little visitors to my apartment.

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I however, ended up with Monty. (And no DVD's or mousetraps!)

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Monty is a tiny little maltese terrier who looked barely alive in his cage when we initally stumbled upon him - he didn't respond to our attempts to rouse him by tapping on his cage and cooing at him.

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The heat, stench, noise and overbearing atmosphere of the crazy pet store made it impossible not to rescue this gorgeous little pup. (He was surrounded by overcrowed cages of animals, alsations barking with their heads hanging out of their chewed metal cages, a great hawk was sitting proudly on top of another cage with just a metal cuff on his leg). The workers in the shop care nothing for the animals, they will just pick any animal you are looking at out of the cage and throw them to the floor.

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Underfed, overheated, salivating with thirst, flea and tick ridden with patches of his hair missing Monty marched happily out of the pits of his hell with us and started his journey as the luckiest pup in Libya.

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Without even a glance back . . .

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After a good bath and a much needed shave to remove the matted clumps of hair on his body. This shows the state of his skin from the endless gnawing at the ticks, fleas and uncomfortable clumps.

Friday, July 24, 2009

As if the bugs, jumping spiders and hideous cockroaches were not enough to deal with, I now have mice!

This is due to the unfortunate humongous gap underneath my front door which seems to be a welcome sign for any creature to come in and bring their families, friends and associates in for a party. Not ideal for a complete paranoid android like myself who finds a wasp back in the UK very hard to deal with (much to the amusement of my lovely brother and sister who think I am the world's biggest chicken).

Given the fact that I have decided to move out to North Africa, I know a certain amount of "bug" toleration is mandatory but MICE??? Far too much for me to deal with....

I have had maintenance from my company around to my apartment to get rid of these delightful little visitors and the result has been a couple of Libyan mousetraps - a small square of cardboard, a huge dollop of extra strong superglue and a chunk of cheese. This means that said little mouse crawls up to get the cheese and then gets stuck in the glue and your job then is to kill the mouse by beating it over the head.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Returning from London was made 10 times worse by the fact that I no longer had the usage of my neighbours wireless internet connection as he had moved to another apartment.

A week later however and I found my wireless saviour in Wimax.

It cost me 550 Libyan Dinars for a years subscription. (Which is the equivalent to £274 - and therefore a monthly cost of approximately £22) Not cheap conisdering where I am but at the same time it is perfect for me and keeps me connected.

Wimax speeds vary but as a whole it is quick (certainly alot quicker than the adsl provided here) and it is reliable. I have had about 3 occasions where the wimax was down and this usually is at times when the rest of the mobile and internet networks are having issues.

Highly recommend this as a source of internet for anyone who comes to live in Tripoli for a year or over. No phoneline necessary, just a plug in dongle which you can take with you anywhere.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Always remember to open only one drawer at a time..Opening all drawers at once leaves one at risk of looking like a silly blonde twat, jammed in between an enormous collapsed filing cabinet and a desk, with a very red face, a scratched chest and a hysterical assistant.

Monday, June 1, 2009

I have certainly picked the hottest place to be, in fact the highest temperature ever recorded on earth was 57.8° C (136°F) in Libya.Due to the sweltering heat in the summer my working hours have changed today for the next 4 months. I start at the same time - 7:30am but now finish an hour earlier at 3pm. Absolutely delighted with the change and the only minor negative difference is we now have a half hour lunch at 13:00.Not a biggie considering today I got to chillout by an outdoor pool, swim 11 lengths and then stuff my face afterwards.